Activity Description: Rwandan electronic transaction provider SIMTEL and South African electronic payment solution specialist iVeri have implemented the iVeri Voice mobile credit card payment system. This follows the successful implementation in 2004 of iVeri Link, an Internet based card acceptance system, at several major merchant sites in Rwanda, including Hotel Gorillas in Kigali City Centre. SIMTEL and iVeri are working together to provide internationally recognized, appropriate and highly secure payment systems in Rwanda. The system can already process international MasterCard credit cards and agreements on the other major card brands are currently in the process of finalization. Using Mobile phones as a payments platform provides a sustainable and appropriate solution in situations where infrastructure is limited. Mobile phones are essential to businesses in developing countries. In Rwanda there are 180,400 mobile phone subscribers. This means that about 17 in every thousand Rwandans have a mobile phone. Research in South Africa has found that over 85 percent of small businesses run by black individuals rely solely on a mobile phone for telecommunications. Now SIMTEL has implemented iVeri Voice in Rwanda. This innovative product allows a business to process international credit cards online using a mobile phone or a tone fixed-line phone. The key advantage of this is that it lowers the cost required to provide card acceptance to businesses. iVeri Voice is also ideally suited to the tourism industry as it can be used anywhere with a GSM signal. It is therefore now possible, using existing infrastructure, to process an international credit card transaction on Lake Kivu in the northwest or in the volcanoes north of Rwanda. A unique and highly popular feature of the iVeri Voice system is the ability of users to interface with the system in their “mother tongue.” In Rwanda the systems interacts with users in English, French and Kinya-rwanda. With Rwanda becoming an important venue for continental and international conferences it is increasingly crucial that universally accepted payment methods be available. iVeri creates secure electronic transaction technology which is sustainable and appropriate in developing economies and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa.